Perhaps the starkest potential clash on the face of the Constitution exists between the freedom to exercise religion and the prohibition against establishment of religion. When a government regulates a land use that is religious, it is violating the right to free exercise? If it excuses the religious land use from the regulation, is it then violating the non-establishment clause?

Such a dispute is playing out in Suffern, New York, where the local government has denied a variance by an Orthodox Jewish organization that provides meals and lodging to those who are visiting relatives or friends at a nearby hospital on the Sabbath. By using the house, Orthodox Jews can avoid driving or other religiously-prohibited actions on the Sabbath.